Discussion: Urgent: Please be as cautious as possible for the next 14 days (March 14 - March 28th)

Urgent: Please be as cautious as possible for the next 14 days (March 14 - March 28th).

Then you can re-evaluate based on what we know then.

Why 14 days?

-- we will have a better idea of how bad this really is in our countries/communities/hospitals
-- we will continue to better understand the disease and how it spreads
-- if we do extreme social distancing for two weeks, we can reset our understanding of who is contagious... and who is not. Which means we might be able to start to interact more.

Risks

Maybe I'm being too alarmist and maybe this is all wrong. But...

Which risk are you willing to live with?

-- If you take the most cautious path possible for you over *the next 14 days*, and it turns out this was no big deal… what did you lose?

-- If you aren't not cautious enough right now and you get sick / die, somebody you love gets sick / dies, or our healthcare system collapses… what did you lose?

Personal Note

Nothing like what is happening right now has happened in my lifetime. It's hard to wrap my head around how different this is from what is normal.

I keep thinking of my Grandma Armstrong, who spent 2 years after she was diagnosed with TB in isolation. Unable to see her young children, except through a window. If she can do that, then me choosing to interact with as few people as possible for the next 14 days is no big deal.

I'm not a public health expert or a medical professional. But, to me, what's going on right now comes down to very simple math and how you think about risk *for the next 14 days.*

More Info

I've put together a document with more detailed reasons/references behind my plea.

https://medium.com/@zanarmstrong/be-as-cautious-as...

I appreciate your heart-felt sentiments. I hope that in two weeks we will have learned what works and what doesn't and can structure 'normal but better' lives around that.

We want more St. Louises and fewer Philadelphias. No offense to Philly.